beernesday

freshly stocked at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Named after the Dageraadplaats, a neighbourhood square in Antwerp, Belgium, Dageraad Brewing is brewer Ben Coli’s effort to transport a small piece of the beer culture he found there home to British Columbia. Spending his youth traveling the world, Ben met three Belgians in Laos and quickly became fast friends, subsequently visiting them in Antwerp several times. Inevitably, at least once each visit, they would find themselves in the Dageraadplaats drinking the legendary beers of Belgium. It was these first encounters with Belgian beers that led Ben to try brewing them himself at home, and it was with his first Belgian-style homebrew that he fell in love. It was incredible—fruity, spicy, complex, but light and drinkable. Interest eventually grew into obsession, and a period of intensive study soon followed including brewing school and beer sabbaticals in Belgium, crisscrossing the country to visit breweries in tiny Flemish villages...

i am very behind on posting reviews and tasting notes and i have no real excuse besides i don't wanna spend all my time on-line i wanna read six more books and meet the 50 book challenge oh, and i'd rather be out drinking the beer! october 5, 2011 rogue john john hazelnut - 5.6% ale with natural hazelnut flavor aged in hazelnut spice rum barrels blech, rum barrels! i thought i'd had this before (last year) but i don't remember booze in it, just nuttiness.  too boozey for me whistler valley trail chestnut ale - 6% dark amber colour with a tan-coloured head.  notes of chestnut, caramel and vanilla too much darned vanilla for my liking - why does everyone gotta put in vanilla?  too sweet, not nutty enough!  a vanilla hazelnut latte - not a chestnut beer dammit! storm imperial flanders red ale - 11% this full bodied monster of a sour has been aged in an oak barrel for a year oak, sure... but i'm getting a whole lotta vinegar.  i do love a sour and it did...

from bridget's friend nicolle on facebook: "OMG! You have an affinity for beer? You love the lager? You have affection for the amber brew? You've a soft spot for the suds? You're mad for the malts? You're the beloved of the brewski? You're captivated by the cold ones? You're sweet on stouts? You're bewitched by barley pops? I never knew! ;)"

and now for the first guest post on my blog! this one is from the lovely and talented amanda: Swans Buckerfield's Brewery Berry Ale: 7%. Not extremely cloudy, unfiltered: contains malted barley, malted wheat, raspberries, hops and yeast. Brewed in Victoria, Vancouver Island.  A mid amber colour or perhaps the colouring of the raspberries??? When poured, doesn't have the biggest head, light and bubbly and light in carbonation. At 7% the label doesn't lie when it says strong beer... But not too strong. Has a very berry hay taste at first....  Very light bodied and fresh on the palate. The raspberry flavour really kicks in as an after taste. Delightful and delish.... raspberries being my favourite of the berries, I find it quite the flavoursome treat!  The hops are ever so slight, a pleasure to drink. One wee glass would be sufficient... Not a sessioner. I think the berry would become too over powering -  more citrus notes are needed!  

on my quest for the ultimate snake bite, i tried a strongbow and stanley park amber mixture the other night. i'm quite delighted by the ale's ability to jump into the lager's place and make a fabulous drink! less sweet than the usual snake bite, this one had plenty of cidery and beery goodness.  i had a second!

stepping away from the ipas for a moment, my beer swilling at hidden the other night included a couple of amber ales. alison went with Vancouver Island Brewery's Sea Dog, and i tried Yukon Brewing Company's Yukon Red.  i won in alcohol volume at 5.5%, alison's was close behind at 5.2%. unfortunately for both of these fine brews, we had tried a brilliant ipa beforehand and were so wowed by it, it took us most of a glass to get into the finer points of these amber ales. both poured with a good head and were wonderfully clear and amber coloured.  both were quite drinkable.  alison was not wowed by the sea dog (it wasn't depthy enough for her), and a bit put off by the angry red-haired man on the label (presumably a proud sailor).  i liked the northern images on my yukon red's label, and would happily have drunk more of it had i not had the amazing ipa to get back to. sea dog's label says:  "Ready, Aye, Ready!  We're proud that our brewery's ho...

ah Driftwood Brewery , local brewers extraordinaire!  today's tipple is the Crooked Coast Amber Ale. yes, i know its not an ipa, sometimes i need a little more malt, and my darker beer of choice tends to be an amber ale. holy head batman!  i think perhaps the beer was a bit too chilled at the pour... operator error. from the bottle:  "Inspired by the original Alt-style beer of Dusseldorf, Crooked Coast brings together the aromas of German noble hops and Munich malt to produce a very refreshing and mellow ale that is the perfect companion on any shape of coast." at a modest 5.1% you can settle in and make this your session beer, and i suggest that you do - its malty goodness sure does refresh! and then i visited the website to see what they have to say, and they second my suggestion to make it a session beer:  "Delicate malt-hop balance is the defining trait of this quintessential session beer!" and offers these food pairing suggestions:  Celery, fen...